Senate chores interfere with McCain’s Seattle fund raising

Probably the last thing Republican Sen. John McCain wants to do right now is pass up an effort to raise money for his cash-starved presidential campaign, but he has put off a Seattle-area fund-raising event.

Instead of coming here for a reception and dinner in downtown Bellevue Thursday evening, the Arizona senator hopes to scoop up desperately needed campaign cash at a breakfast in downtown Seattle Aug. 2.

His local fund-raising consultant, Amy Barnes of Fundraising Partners Northwest, said Monday that McCain has to be in Washington, D.C., this week to fend off Democratic attempts to attach amendments to the defense authorization bill to scale back U.S. involvement in Iraq.

The senator, who has been criticized for supporting President Bush’s Iraq war policy, is the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Republican manager of the bill.
There was no indication that he scuttled this week’s local visit for reasons related to his campaign’s grave financial and organizational problems.

Many of McCain’s top campaign aides have resigned or been fired in the past two weeks because of money problems; his campaign treasury has shrunk to a tiny $1.5 million, and his national poll numbers and fund-raising have fallen off, partly due to of his unpopular positions in support of the war and the now-scuttled Senate immigration reform bill.

In Washington state, however, McCain has probably a stronger roster of local backers than any of his rivals for the GOP nomination. His supporters include state Attorney General Rob McKenna, former Sen. Slade Gorton; Tony Williams, a Washington, D.C., lobbyist and Gorton’s former chief of staff, and former U.S. Attorney Mike McKay.

Seattle-based lobbyist Chris Fidler, the state co-chairman of McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign, is again running his campaign here and has been a ubiquitous presence at Republican events around the state.

The Aug. 2 fund-raiser will be at the Washington Athletic Club. The tab is $500 for the breakfast or $2,300 for a “roundtable discussion” with McCain preceding the breakfast.